Media Roundup: Venice, South Carolina, Baltimore, Martin County

New research finds that rising sea levels due to climate change will put dozens of World Heritage Sites in the Mediterranean region at increased risk of flooding and erosion—threats many of the sites are already facing.

This year, coastal erosion accelerated. Record tidal floods swamped miles of shoreline. Flooding was catastrophic from Hurricane Florence, and the storm almost became the most powerful hurricane ever to make landfall in South Carolina.

Climate records are being broken with increasing frequency as air and seas warm. It’s become the new norm, researchers say. The ultimate costs will be exorbitant.

And Charleston is quickly becoming Ground Zero for the threats. In response, the city is taking the lead among coastal communities in the state and region to try to prepare — not so surprising for a place facing 180 days per year of tidal flooding by 2045, according to federal estimates.

The end of the 2018 hurricane season is a good time to take a step back and see what we’ve learned from recent storms.

In the last two years, 18 North Atlantic hurricanes struck the United States, five of which were very dangerous by any measure. It is not unreasonable to assume that these powerful storms are the beginning of the “new normal” — the impact of a warming ocean on hurricane intensity.

In 2017, an unprecedented three superstorms — Harvey, Irma and Maria — hit the U.S. coast. Harvey tied Katrina as the most destructive hurricane since 1900, damaging 130,000 homes ($125 billion) and dumping a national record 60 inches of rain on Houston, a city spectacularly unprepared for flooding. Irma struck eight Caribbean islands, Cuba, Southwest Florida and skimmed past the Florida Keys, destroying 25 percent of the buildings there ($53 billion). Maria ripped through Puerto Rico, causing devastation over much of the island ($90 billion) and killing an estimated 2,975 people.

A new report from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science predicts sea levels around the state could rise by as little as 1 foot or as much as 7 feet by the end of the century — depending on how much carbon the world emits into the atmosphere.

In any case, flooding is likely to become a near-daily occurrence in places like the Inner Harbor and Annapolis’ City Dock by 2100, scientists said.

“Our findings don’t mean that Antarctica is growing; it’s still losing mass, even with the extra snowfall,” said Brooke Medley, a glaciologist and lead author of the study. “What it means, however, is that without these gains, we would have experienced even more sea level rise in the 20th century.”

Measuring snowfall in Antarctica is no easy feat, and only a few weather stations have been built there. Satellites are even less helpful because they can’t differentiate recent snowfall with snow that’s already on the ground.

Mike Meier feels like a voice in the wilderness.

The Stuart City Commissioner repeatedly pounds the drum about climate change, and the fact that the city, in his view, isn’t ready for it.

“We’re not even really looking at it,” said Meier, a co-owner of Ground Floor Farm who joined the City Commission this summer. “We haven’t said, ‘What are our risks, what are other governments doing to address similar risks, and what could we be doing?’

“It’s nothing besides one commissioner’s pet project.”

Well, Martin County is a pretty conservative place.

Then again — if you believe the reports — we’re also right in the crosshairs.

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The Invading Sea is a collaboration by the editorial boards of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post —
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